Former Oregon bank manager sentenced to 6 years

Former Oregon bank manager sentenced to 6 years

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — A former Coos Bay bank employee has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison for stealing more than $600,000 from customers, most of them ill, disabled or elderly.

A lawyer for Shawna Leimomi Saia, 38, said she was driven in part by a gambling addiction, the Eugene Register-Guard reported (http://bit.ly/oOr9Vf ).

Saia also must make restitution and explain her gambling addiction to Oregon's government leaders. U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken said she requires such letters to remind state leaders that "if we're going to have the availability of gambling, there needs to be a reciprocal fund that takes care of people who are addicted to gambling."

The restitution of $626,553 goes to Wells Fargo Bank, which paid that sum to the victims of the former assistant manager

Court records show that Saia used the identities of victims to create ATM cards, which she used to steal from their accounts. She also befriended and socialized with her scammed customers.

When Saia pleaded guilty in May to bank fraud, she acknowledged that several of her victims were vulnerable because of their age or medical condition or because they relied on her as a "personal banker." She also admitted that she fled to avoid prosecution — posing in California shelters as a victim of domestic violence, the U.S. attorney's office said.

"You were masterful at what you did ... and how you concealed it," Aiken told Saia at a sentencing hearing Wednesday. For that reason, Aiken said, bank officials "didn't pick up on this sooner, before so much damage had been done."

Aiken said the letters should go to Gov. John Kitzhaber, the head of the state Lottery Commission and Oregon's congressional delegation, explaining when and why Saia started gambling, how it got out of control, how much she lost, who she hurt and what she thinks she needs for treatment.